TWO Kerry filmmakers are highlighting the effects of domestic abuse in a new short film to be premiered next week at the Kerry Film Festival.

The work of writer and director, Mark Riordan from Killorglin and producer Aaron O’Neill from Cromane, ‘The Black’ focuses on how domestic abuse could affect a whole family, paying particular attention to male victims of abuse.

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The short film asks the question “What’s really going on inside?” and tells us that we never really know what is going on inside another family’s home.

It involves a detective interviewing a child, about a violent incident between her parents the previous night.

“Originally we planned to make a thriller,” said Mark, a 25 year old graphic designer at Tweak.com. “Myself and Aaron have been filming for a few years and we have mostly made horrors or thrillers. I pitched the idea to Aaron and we developed it more.

“As development continued and I wrote up the first draft of the script, we decided to challenge ourselves and tackle the real serious topic of domestic abuse. The film industry is all about entertainment and thats what we want to do, entertain an audience, but we felt this film can carry such a strong message too.

“We spent months in pre production and spoke to many organisations, including Amen, who gave us an excellent insight into male victims of domestic abuse. We met up with Michael Lynch of AV3 Productions in February and I am delighted to have worked with them on this.”

The film was completely self-funded by the two man who both work full time jobs. They are in early stages of planning for a feature film also – to be shot in 2018 – and Mark is currently working on the first draft of the script.

“We want to entertain audiences and prove that we can make a good film. The Black carries a really strong message and because of this I really hope that it can reach many more audiences worldwide in 2017 and help raise more awareness for male victims of domestic abuse,” said Mark.

The film premieres at The Kerry Film Festival on Sunday, October 23 in Killarney Cinema and will also screen at The Richard Harris Film Festival this month.